CUSTOMS officers visiting a Birmingham off-licence found a stash of suspected counterfeit alcohol and an illegal immigrant in an upstairs room.

The man, who had been working at Six Ways Food and Wine in High Street, Erdington, had been in the country without permission for two years.

He was paid £100 in cash for working 20 hours a week.

He was arrested, handed to the immigration authorities and is now facing deportation.

The incident forms part of a dossier of evidence before a city council committee, which will decide next week whether to suspend or remove completely the store’s licence to sell alcohol.

In a report to the council, Birmingham Police Licensing Officer Andrew Walker said: “Customs officers identified large quantities of alcohol that appeared to be either counterfeit or non-duty paid, which was either being offered for sale on the shelves, or held in stock.

“This included a number of cases of vodka, whisky and wine, and also trays of beer.

“The amount of duty that had not been paid on these items was estimated to be in the region of £6,000, he added.”

Mr Walker said that the store’s licence-holder was unable to produce receipts or invoices covering the stock and “admitted he had bought it from a man in a van who he did not know”

Police and council officials uncovered a number of alleged infringements of the store owner’s licence to sell alcohol.

These included:

n Drunken and abusive customers in the shop.

n Sale of alcohol to under-age customers.

n Staff selling alcohol to drunken customers.

n Drunken customers fighting in the shop.

A CCTV security system was in place, but staff did not know how to operate it properly, police said.

Large amounts of cash were found upstairs, and the matter was subject to an investigation by West Midlands Police’s economic crime unit.